Indian Americans Place 8th and 10th in Intel Science Contest

Anand Srinivasan of Roswell High School in Roswell, Ga., won a $20,000 award for his 8th place finish in the Intel Science Talent Search competition.

Anand Srinivasan of Roswell High School in Roswell, Ga., won a $20,000 award for his 8th place finish in the Intel Science Talent Search competition.

Two Indian American high school seniors captured the 8th and 10th place awards March 11 in the Intel Science Talent Search competition, the country’s most prestigious pre-college science and math contest.

Anand Srinivasan of Roswell High School in Roswell, Georgia, won a $20,000 award for his eighth place finish. His project featured a neural-network-based computer model, RNNScan, which “learns” patterns in DNA to predict the boundaries of certain genomic regions.

Placing 10th was Shawn Datta of Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland.

A resident of North Potomac, Md., Datta received a $20,000 award for his research using computer models and equations to improve the understanding of the interactions of nuclear matter.

The competition honors high school seniors with exceptional scientific and mathematics promise.

Eric S. Chen, 17, of San Diego, Calif., won the top award of $100,000 from the Intel Foundation for his research of potential new drugs to treat influenza.

There were 11 Indian Americans and one Bangladeshi Americans among the 40 finalists who competed in Washington, D.C., March 6-11, for a total of $630,000 in awards (I-W, Jan. 31).

“We at Intel celebrate the work of these brilliant young scientists as a way to inspire the next generation to follow them with even greater energy and excitement into a life of invention and discovery,” said Wendy Hawkins, executive director of the Intel Foundation.

In total, the Intel awarded $1.25 million for Intel Science Talent Search this year.

By Indiawest

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